Disease Programs

Orthopaedics/Sports Medicine

Christopher Allan (Orthopaedics, Medicine)

Digit regeneration in humans. Children regrow amputated digit tips, a unique instance of complex tissue regeneration in humans. The process is not well-understood at the cellular or molecular level. Our lab has developed and reported the first human fetal digit model of response to digit tip amputation. We have also provided the first evidence in humans that the regeneration-associated transcription repressor Msx-1 may be involved in this process. Insights like this may form the basis for future cellular, tissue-engineered, or gene therapies to stimulate regeneration after extremity injury or amputation.

Frederick Matsen (Chair, Orthopaedics)

This group of clinicians is successfully developing regenerative medicine approaches to sports injuries.